Happy Independance Day but Are You Free?

Happy Independence Day for all of my friends in the United States. It was on July 4th of 1776 that the 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain and eventually formed the United State of America. On that day 56 brave men signed the Declaration of Independence. This document starts out like this:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–…

Each July 4th Americans celebrate this great event by having cookouts and fireworks and get-togethers with family and friends only to go back to jobs and occupations that have them enslaved.

You see the model that we have been taught from grade school is to go to school and get good grades so you can get a good job. A job where you, in most instances, you will work 40 hours a week for just enough pay to make ends meet and look forward to the weekend.

It use to be that you could even find a job where you could work for 30 or 40 years and retire but those days are no more. Today if you stay on a job for 5 or 6 years you are doing well. But beware, as I found, the older you get the harder it gets to find the next job. I know you say we have laws that “keep employers from discrimination due to age.” This is true but when it comes to age discrimination employers have become adapt at finding ways around the laws and you never get an interview in the first place.

So our model, as some call it, the 40, 40 40 plan no longer works. That is work 40 hours a week for 40 years only to retire on 40% of your income. So there has to be a better way!

A Better Way

So what is a better way? A better way, in my humble opinion, is to go to school and get a good job to help finance your own business. A business that you can grow over time and eventually work 100% of the time because it begins to pay you more than the good job does. The late Jim Rohn use to say ” Work hard at your job and you can make a living. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune.” So while you are working at your “good job” learn all you can about business but spend your extra time to build your dreams.

In order to do that you need to work on yourself. Jim Rohn also said “If you want to have more, you have to become more. For things to change, you have to change. For things to get better you have to get better. For things to improve, you have to improve. If you grow, everything grows for you.”

In other words you have to learn more in order to have more. So while you are working on your job, start looking for ways that you can become your own business person. Learn a new trade, like internet marketing. Be on guard because you can find yourself running around in circles and spending your hard earned cash on schemes that never work. I would suggest that you find a mentor who can guide you and help you get around all of the pitfalls.